Friday, October 31, 2008

A group of Prussian grenadiers from the IR12 Alt Darmstadt Regiment enjoy a little down time for cooking, hunting and maybe a little bit of figure painting.

It is All Hallows Eve and all of the little monsters are done with their trick or treating, so things are quieting down a little bit and I have a little bit of time to paint. Except that I didn't do any painting. I couldn't quite get my painting mojo going this evening, so instead, I cleaned and primed another squadron of von Kleist horse grenadiers so that I can start painting them over the weekend. I also applied the finishing touches to the bases for 7 more of the Black Legion de Winter and 6 von Kleist dismounted horse grenadiers.

I had a decent painting output this month, consisting of the following figures:

So that results in 73 Olley Painting Points for the month of October. Not bad, considering that the first two weeks of October were devoted largely to preparation work for my Big Battalion Old School Wargame on October 11th. That was quite a big production, and well worth the effort. And then last weekend, Bill, Randy and I hosted a BAR SYW wargame at the Rock Con convention in Rockford, Illinois. So it has been an active month for me.

Now that all of the big games are over, my thoughts turn to getting units ready for the Winter skirmish game that we will play the first weekend in December, up in Brown Deer, Wisconsin. So I am busy painting freikorps and jagers and other types of figures that one does not normally see on a wargame table. I like the Foundry von Kleist horse grenadiers, which is really saying something since I am not normally a big fan of the Foundry style of figures. Somehow, though, they work for me. So I primed another squadron this evening with the hope of getting them done over the weekend. That would give me two squadrons of the eventual three or four that I plan to have in the skirmish game.

As of now, my planned von Kleist Freikorps will consist of the following:

Now historically, there were 8 squadrons of the horse grenadiers and 10 squadrons of the uhlans and 5 squadrons of the hussars; but I have no intention of painting that many freikorps figures. Hmm, 10 squadrons of uhlans would be an impressive sight, don't you think?

Monday, October 27, 2008

"Triple blue and three times damned to the Devil (Dreimal blau und dreimal des Teufels)," is allegedly what Frederick the Great said about his various frei-battalion troops. The phrase refers to their typical blue coat with light blue facings and light blue waistcoat.

One frei korps unit that performed better than Frederick's low estimation of the troops in general, was the legion of infantry, cavalry and artillery recruited and organized by Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist in 1759. These were the best of the best in Christopher Duffy's estimation and the eventually grew into a corps of 6,000 men of all troop types.

The unit began its service with Prussian with the formation of a squadron of hussars in 1759 and was gradually augmented with a regiment of Croat styled infantry, a regiment of dragoons wearing a sort of horse grenadier hat, some more hussars, and ten squadrons of uhlans. Finally, a battery of horse artillery decked out in green uniforms and some jagers filled out the corps.

Von Kleist jaegers prowl the woods, directed by Colonel von Kleist and his aide on horseback.

I had thought that my days of painting Prussians had come to an end, seeing as how I had everything that I could possibly need and being limited by the number of boxes of figures that I could transport in my car. But then, our little group came up with the idea of painting figures so that we could do a game featuring light troops, or Kleine Krieg. I happened to have a batch of the von Kleist dragoons in storage. I had acquired these Foundry figures from the old Standing Order days, when I would automatically receive a box of sample SYW figures on a regular basis.

I tried painting a couple of test figures first, and found that I rather enjoyed working with these particular Foundry figures. They have a lot of personality and character to them, and they aren't the misshapen dwarves that seem to pass as Foundry figures these days. And being largely green in color, they are not that hard to paint. The other night, I finished two figures in about two hours of nonstop painting.

I plan to build a corps comprising of a regiment of dragoons (36 to 48 figures), some dismounted dragoons (maybe 24 at most), a battalion of the Green Croat infantry (60 figures), some of the jaegers (30 figures), a squadron of hussars (12 figures), and maybe two squadrons of the uhlans (24 figures). Finally, I will add two 6 pound horse artillery guns with five crew each.

I have a good start on this project, having painted a dozen each of the dragoons and jaegers with another 24 Croats on the painting table. I bet though, that when the resupply of Foundry figures arrives in a few more days, that I will want to switch back to painting the von Kleist dragoons (that look like horse grenadiers). Anticipation makes it all worth while.

One of the characters in my on going 18th Century campaign is the evil and cunning master spy, Milady de Winter. Many of you will recognize the name from the Three Musketeers movies, featuring Faye Dunaway as the evil antagonist. The more recent remake of the movie featured the equally delightful, but evil version played by Rebecca de Mornay. My Lady de Winter is presumably a descendant of the women who lived during the reign of Louis XIII of France and those evil genes seem to have carried forward into the 18th Century.

Milady de Winter spends much of her time in her ongoing quest to kidnap Lady Diana Pettygree, that innocent English aristocrat who galivants around the continent with the French (Gallians) at a time when Britannia and Gallia are at war. Lady Pettygree is totally oblivious to the danger that lurks just steps behind her. Countless servants, friends and acquaintances of hers seem to disappear or otherwise meet untimely ends. All courtesy of Milady de Winter and her band of henchmen.

It occurred to me that Lady de Winter would probably require a retinue of body guards to escort her as she travels around Europe on spy missions for the King of Prussia or anyone else willing to pay for her services. She's kind of like an 18th Century forerunner of SMERSH. As such, I reasoned that she would need her own band of bodyguards, all decked out in black uniforms with red facings and straw colored waistcoats and breeches. Their uniforms are modeled after those of Favrat's Freikorps Black Legion.

When I saw the Black Scorpion range of 18th Century Pirates and British Royal Marines, I knew that I had found the perfect figures to use to build Milady de Winter's personal retinue: the Black Legion. There are two sets of Royal Marines available - I've used Set One so far, but plan to buy more Set Two boxes of Marines with bayonets on their muskets. Some of the Marines are shown in the picture above, painted in black rather than British crimson.

Three Privateers and the Naval Captain from Black Scorpion. The Captain will be the leader of the regulars in the Black Legion, while the gentleman in the red waistcoat and the two men in black great coats will work the dark arts behind the scenes.

The sets of Privateers in long overcoats also seemed to be perfect to play the role of the irregular naer-do-wells who do all of the dirty work for Milady. Several of the Privateers are shown in the above picture, both in long black greatcoats, one firing a carbine and the other leveling a brace of pistols at some unfortunate soul. I love these figures! They are full of character, they are easy to paint, and at 32mm, they fit right in with my Staddens, Surens and other large figures. The figures come with round plastic slotta bases. I replaced them with wood one-inch square MDF bases with precut slots that I purchased from Georgo Bases. I would imagine that Litko probably also makes one-inch square precut wood bases as well.

By the way, I want to give a shout out to Frank Hammond for teaching me how to use his method for terraining bases and applying static grass. I really like the way that these bases turned out using Frank's method. Simply put, the steps are to (1) apply spackle compound mixed with dark brown paint onto the figure base; (2) dip the wet base into a pile of railroad ballast or sand; (3) when the base is dry, apply a wash of brown ink to the base; (4) when the base dries from the ink application, then dry brush a light tan or flesh color over the surface; and finally, (5) apply blotches of white glue onto the base and dip the stand into a tub of static grass, carefully tapping off the excess static grass. You can find the details on Frank's Minden Miniatures blog, a link to which is provided on the left hand side of this page.

So far, I have painted ten Black Legion infantry and three of the Irregulars. Eventually, I would like to increas the Legion infantry to 36 figures plus a dozen Irregulars. And of course, I already have the Prussian Black Hussars (HR5) which do double duty as Milady's horse guards and as Der Alte Fritz's battle cavalry. That lot is sure to put the fear of God into the hearts of those who dare to cross paths with Milady de Winter.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

It is now time to reveal the identity of "The Secret Unit" that I was holding back specifically for our OSW Big Battalion Game last weekend. That unit is, of course, the Prussian cuirassier regiment Number 10, known as the Gens d'armes. In last year's Big Battalion Game, the French had more cuirassiers than the Prussians and so I vowed on a stack of Bibles that I would never be out-cuirassed again. With that in mind, I order 20 packs of Crusader Miniatures' 28mm SYW Prussian cavalry figures from Old Glory in the United States and intended to have them all painted in time for this year's game.

The prospect of painting sixty cavalry figures was rather daunting, even for a speedy brushman like Der Alte Fritz. So the figures arrived last November, and then they waited, and waited, and waited, and... well, you get the picture.

Preparations for Historicon 2008 was taking up a lot of time over the summer, so I didn't take on this project until the first week of August. I decided that the only way to avoid demoralizing myself was to divide the figures into squadrons of 12 cavalry, so that I would work on a squadron at a time. Once one squadron was completed, I would start work on the next squadron. I was painting them at a rate of about a squadron per week, give or take some time out for other life matters. I had the first two squadrons done by the end of August, but I began to wonder if I could paint 36 more figures over the next four weeks. Somehow I was able to overcome the potential for tedium and finish the project in September. This actually gave me two extra weeks for cushion and doing other projects.

So how did the Gens d'armes do in their first game? I know that some of you are probably thinking that they suffered from the dreaded New Unit Curse and routed off the field. No, but perhaps even worse, they were not engaged in the battle of Freiberg. However, they were moving up to the front, along with the 60-figure CR8 von Seydlitz regiment and were getting ready to charge through the opening that the Prussians had created in the center of the battlefield. I guess that the moral of the story is to get your reserves on the table and get them were they can do some damage.

Now I thought that I was being rather clever, what with all of this Secret Unit talk. The French command staff spent the past several months scratching their heads trying to guess the identity of the unit. I even suggested to them that the Secret Unit might be nothing more than disinformation and that it didn't even exist. It turns out that those Perfidious Gallians had a few tricks, er, ah, secret units of their own up their sleeves. I noticed that they had a brand new battalion of Gardes Suisses on the back table and another 36-figure heavy (armoured) cavalry unit of their own. Oh well, what is a wargame without a good old fashioned arms race. I tip my tricorn to the French for responding in kind with their own secret regiments.

Unit History
The Gens d'armes were formed in 1687 as two companies of "Grands Mousquetaires", each of 65 privates from noble Huguenot families in Brandenberg. They became known as Gens d'armes in 1691 and later fought with distinction throughout the War of Spanish Succession. In 1718, they were reorganized into five squadrons. The regiment's inhaber was Colonel Dubislav von Natzmer (later Field Marshall) from its inception through 1739.

One squadron accompanied King Frederick II as his personal bodyguard during the Mollwitz campaign in 1740-41. There it was posted on the right flank and suffered along with the rest of the Prussian cavalry in that battle. It also fought at Hohenfriedberg and Soor in 1745 with greater distinction. At Soor, it charged up the Graner Koppe and captured 22 guns while losing only 68 men.

Major General von Katzler served as the regiment's inhaber (1747-1761) through most of the Seven Years War. The regiment fought at Lobositz, Prague, Rossbach, Leuthen, Zorndorf, Hochkirch, Leignitz, Torgau, Burkersdorf and Reichenbach. The regiment was typically brigaded with the Garde du Corps cuirassier regiment (CR13) during the SYW.

Command Stands
I have come up with a system of command stands that I have referred to from time to time and so I thought that I would show a picture of how it works. A general is mounted on a 2-inch diameter round stand (by himself). I glue a piece of cherry or mahogany wood onto the base and use this as an identification plaque. I then print out the name of the general (Lucida Blackletter font looks particulalry Prussian or Teutonic) and glue it onto the wooden plaque. It gives the command stand a nice finished look. Front and rear views of cavalry commander, Major General von Schonaich, are shown below.

Monday, October 13, 2008

The glorious charge of the Prussian Garde du Corps into the French Royal Deux Ponts regiment. Front Rank French and Elite Miniatures Prussian cavalry.

Note: click on all the pictures to enlarge the view.

On Saturday October 11, 2008 I hosted my third annual Old School Wargaming Big Battalion Game at the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort in Lincolnshire, Illinois. The game featured a Seven Years War battle between the French & Austrians against the Prussians, using largely 28mm and 30mm figures. The battle was fought across two tables measuring 6 feet wide by 30 feet long, each. The tables were set up parallel to one another with a 6 foot aisle in between the tables. The aisle did not exist for wargaming purposes. See picture below:

Each side had approximately 1200 infantry and 400 cavalry along with 90 pounds of artillery per side. The scenario was based on the ACW action at Gettysburg, featuring Longstreet's attack on the Round Tops, Devils Den and Peach Orchard - only disguised as a SYW scenario. As you look at the many pictures of the terrain, the similarities will become apparent. In place of the Peach Orchard, I placed some high ground in front of the French lines and replaced the orchard with a village that I called Remstadt. I allowed the French the choice of deploying on their back table edge or as far forward as high ground around Remstadt. Much like General Sickles chose to do, so too did the French deploy as far forward as allowed by the game judge.

The Devils Den terrain was replaced by the Zimmerwald, a light forest that covered a small hillock, while Little Round Top was replaced by the village of Leopoldau.

The Zimmerwald in the foreground and the village of Leopoldau in the background. The Muhlenberg hill can also be seen in the background to the left.

The high ground around the village of Remstadt was occuppied by four battalions of French infantry and two 12-pound batteries of 3 guns each.
A long ridge continued from Remstadt back towards the far right flank of the French army. The ridge, known as the Galgenberg (Cemetary Ridge), extended to the town of Freiberg (Gettysburg). The Prussian side of the table also had a long ridge line known as the Schmeidberg (Seminary Ridge) and the left flank of the Prussian army rested on a wooded area known as the Kindlewald and the nearby village of Kinderhof. These I just made up these features to be points to be contested and to provide a natural terrain feature on the Prussian flank.

Prussian von Kliest frei-korps company advances along the wooded road through the Kindlewald to the village of Kinderhof, on the Prussian far left flank.

Prussian brigade of the Duke of Bevern, supported by the Prinz von Preussen (CR2) cuirassiers fill in the ground from the Kindlewald to the Schmeidberg hill. This represented the "refused" left wing of the Prussian army.

The Prussian strategy was to attack the French right wing between the Zimmerwald and the high ground at Remstadt, while holding back, or "refusing", its left wing to keep the French army pinned down so that it could not support the fighting at Remstadt. The Erbprinz Friedrich held back a reserve of two guard battalions, one musketeer battalion, two howitzers, and three squadrons of the Garde du Corps (CR13) with the intention of supporting the attack on Remstadt. Moritz von Anhalt Dessau commanded the Prussian right wing of 8 battalions and 7 squadrons of cavalry, while Hans von Zieten commanded the Advance Guard of light troops (one jager battalion, 7 squadrons of hussars, and a battery of horse artillery). Zieten would attack the Zimmerwald and keep the French from launching any attacks into Prinz Moritz's right flank as he advanced on Remstadt.

The Prussian right wing under the command of the Duke of Bevern. The generals (from left to right) Zieten, Seydlitz and Bevern confer prior to the start of the game. Note the battery of Prussian 12-pounders next to the village of Almsdorf, positioned to pound the French in Remstadt.

Von Zieten's advance guard of light troops deploys in the "light zone" prior to the start of the game.

One thing that we did to promote more fluid movement during the game was to establish "light troop zones" covering the ending four feet of table space on each flank of the table. The only troops that could be deployed in the light zones prior to the game were light infantry and cavalry. Thereafter, any other troops could move into these light zones.

Various villages and hills had point values - each table had 45 points worth of terrain features. The side that held the most terrain points at the end of the game would be the winner. Additional points could be earned for things such as captured flags, routed units, captured artillery pieces (all one point each). Finally, the side that inflicted the most casualties would receive a victory point.

The Battle of Freiberg Begins - Action on the Prussian left at Kinderhof
The first couple of game turns were done using an "army card draw". Since we did not expect much in the way of firing during the first several turns, as the armies closed within cannon and musket range, we simply drew a single card to determine which army would move first. All units of one side, say the Prussians, would move if a red card were drawn, while all French units could move when a black card was drawn. This served to speed up the game, rather than drawing cards for every sector of the table. Once the armies were within firing range, we would revert to card draws by table sector (each sector covering 5 feet of table length).

The Prussians occupy Kinderhof and the Kindlewald on their left flank early in the game. This gave the Prussians control of 10 terrain points in total. The Zieten (Blue) hussars (H2) and the IR42 Margraf Friedrich fusilier regiment are shown above.

The town of Friedberg, opposite Kinderhof, depicting the advance of the French cavalry regiment Mestre-de-Camp, supported by the Arquebusiers de Grassin and the light infantry of the Chasseurs de Fischer.

The French attack on Kinderhof is countered by Prussian cuirassiers and Bevern's infantry brigade of four battalions. The Chasseurs de Fischer would charge into Kinderhof, defended by the von Kliest frei-korps, only to be driven out by the IR42 Markgraf Friedrich fusiliers.

Chasseurs de Fischer assault the village of Kinderhof. The French regular infantry regiment La Reine appear to have the better of the fire fight with the Prussian Alt Darmstadt (IR12) regiment that is trying to support the village. Saxon von Bruhl light dragoons support the La Reine regiment.

Another view of the intense fighting around Kinderhof. The Prussian CR2 cuirassiers support the Alt Darmstadt regiment, which is about to run away.

Closer view of the fighting around Kinderhof on the Prussian left flank.

Bill Protz, author of the 'Batailles de l'Ancien Regime' or 'BAR" rules, contemplates what to do next with his French cavalry.

Action in the middle at Remstadt (Peach Orchard)Austrian cuirassiers (where did they come from?) charge into Prussian musketeer regiment IR24 Schwerin (Suren figures). Remstadt is in the left background and supporting French grenadiers move toward the village in support.

Irish regiment Bulkeley in red and Prussian IR19 Margraf Karl slug it out in a firefight south of Remstadt. French Gardes Francaises can be seen supporting the Irish regiment. The Zimmerwald and Leopoldau are in the back right area of the picture.

The Prussian attack on Remstadt was a very bloody affair, with the French gaining the initial advantage by drawing firing cards first. Thus the Prussians had to take 3 or 4 opening salvoes of fire with a +5 firing bonus for the French, before they could return fire. This decimated the two battalions of IR41 Wied Prussian fusiliers by half before they could even fire. The IR19 regiment (see picture above) also suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Irish regiment Bulkeley. The French also unleashed some of their cavalry in this sector, hoping to rout the depleted Prussian units. The French grand battery in front of Remstadt also dealt a lot of pain and death on the Prussians.

Gradually, the Prussians were able to whittle down the French in this sector, basically trading battalion for battalion in the opening rounds. Prinz Moritz then brought up his second line of three grenadier battalions to finish of the French in this sector. The French likewise brought up blue coated Grenadiers de France, but this time, the Prussians started to get the first fire initiative and slowly but surely, the Prussians pushed on into Remstadt.

Erbprinz Friedrich orders all the Prussian 12 pounders to the front of Almsdorf to blast a hole into the French infantry in Remstadt.

Battle of the grenadiers outside of Remstadt. Prussian Jung Krakow dragoons (DR2) charge into a mass of Austrian hussars.

The Heyden (19/25) Grenadier Battalion finally captures Remstadt.

A good picture is worth showing again. The Garde du Corps ride down the Royal Deux Ponts regiment, capture their colours, and then ride them down in pursuit. Then they charge into a waiting Austrian cuirassier regiment and nearly finish them off, but for one pip of the dice. Alas, they are then charged in the rear by the perfidious French Royal Cavalry regiment and surrounded, but the Garde du Corps escapes with their colors and those of the Deux Ponts. Many a Pour-le-Merite were awarded to the surviving Garde du Corps troopers.

The Erbprinz Friedrich noticed that the area to the north side of Remstadt was held by only one battalion of French troops, the blue coated Royal Deux Ponts. A brigade of grenadiers and guards were posted to the rear of the Deux Ponts, but they were not close enough to support a potential break through. Friedrich knew that this was the time to attack the center with everything that he had.

So he ordered the IR15/III Guard battalion, the IR34 Prinz Ferdinand Musketeers, to move towards the Deux Ponts. He also ordered the brigade of Itzenplitz to move forward and support his attack. The Itzenplitz brigade was part of the refused left wing of the Prussian army. At the same time, Friedrich ordered von Seydlitz to advance two of his 60 figure cuirassier regiments (CR8 Von Seydlitz, and CR10 Gensdarmes) forward to support the attack. Since they had a long way to travel, Friedrich hurled the Garde du Corps (3 squadrons) and two squadrons of the CR1 Buddenbrock cuirassiers forward to break the French line.

While the Prussian grenadier battalion Heyden marched in front of Remstadt, the IR34 and IR20 musketeer regiments sacrificed themselves to French cannon fire. They absorbed the Deux Ponts' first fire bonus and then whittled them down by a stand. At this point, the Garde du Corps charged and routed the Deux Ponts. The CR1 Buddenbrock regiment rode down the French battery of three 12-pounders providing support. At the same moment, Heyden grenadiers captured Remstadt. The Guard grenadiers IR15/III arrived to fend off a counter attack by the Grenadiers de France (who had to withdraw once Heyden took the village and posed a danger to their flank).

The Garde du Corps continued to pursue the French all the way back to their baseline, while the CR1 Buddenbrock regiment rode down another French battery and hit an Austrian regiment of infantry in the flank. By this time, Seydlitz's 120 cuirassier figures had arrived in the center and that, as Christopher Robbin would say, was that. Game over.

Minuet in the Zimmerwald (Devil's Den)
Finally, while all of the heavy action was taking place in the center, there was an exciting light infanty and cavalry fight going on in the Zimmerwald.

Prussian and Austrian hussars clash on the road to Leopoldau.

Once the Austrian hussars are cleared off, the Protzdam Garde Grenadiers march into Leopoldau, supported by horse artillery, and capture the town.

Another Prussian (black) and Austrian (red) cavalry clash outside of the Zimmerwald.

At the conclusion of the battle, the French are retreating back to their base in Frankfurt-am-Main and a mysterious black coach emerges from the town of Freiberg, bearing messages for the Erbprinz.

The battle ended after ten game turns with the Prussians holding Remstadt (10 points) and Leopoldau (5 points) in addition to holding all of the points (45) on their table. They also inflicted about 100 more casualties on the French, due to routing and captured units counting as casualties, plus numerous cannons (8 pieces) and colours captured (at least two from my recollection. The French withdrew from the field and hurried back to the safety of Frankfurt.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Over view of the French redeployment south of the village of Munzenberg. Regular French infantry defend the line of retreat, with the Horvath Hussars protecting their flank. Prussian hussars are seen massing south of the village, but they can not attack the infantry without supporting Prussian infantry, so they call off the attack.

Heeding the advice of the Honorable Reverend Caddy, Colonel Chalfont quickly marched the Regiment Belsunce through the town of Munzenberg and redeployed it on the south side of the town to protect his line of retreat back to Freiberg. He then converged the two companies of the Clermont-Prince light infantry with the two companies of Chasseurs de Fischer, thus forming one large battalion of light infantry. These were placed by Chalfont inside the town of Munzenberg where they were protected from the superior numbers of Prussian cavalry. Finally, Chalfont deployed the Horvath Hussars south of the town where they could protect the line of retreat AND the right flank of the Belsunce Regiment. See the picture above and click the pix to enlarge the view.

Closer view of the French Regiment Belsunce deployed in two ranks. RSM and Old Glory (24-figure units) that are pushed together to form one larger "BAR" style battalion. Colonel Chalfont can be seen inside the town, mounted on his horse, directing his troops.

Colonel Bauer countered by shifting three squadrons of Black Hussars and a section of horse artillery towards the south road. The hussars made several feint attacks towards the French infantry to see if they would break. They did not. A couple rounds of artillery fire had no effect on the French, who continued to hold their ground. Bauer deployed the Heyden Grenadier Battalion (19/25) on the plain to the north of the town and supported it with the other section of horse artillery and two squadrons of Blue Hussars. Again, Bauer hoped to bluff the French light infantry out of their positions, but when it became apparent that they would not budge, Bauer elected to call off the attack. He did not want to waste his infantry in an attack on Munzenberg village. He had no doubt that his grenadiers could carry off the attack, but for what purpose? He would have to fall back anyway, now that his cavalry screen was meeting resistance, so there was no point in accumulating needless casualties.

Colonel Bauer decided that an attack on the town was not in the spirit of his orders, which were to find the French screen of light forces and prevent them from detecting the approach march of the Erbprinz's army. So he pulled his forces back out of range of musketry and allowed Chalfont to march back to Freiberg, where the latter would undoubtedly report the presence of the Prussian advance guard in this sector. It thus seemed inevitable that the two great armies of Prussia (Germania) and France (Gallia) would come into conflict somewhere near Freiberg, on the morrow.

Note: We fought and concluded the epic battle of Freiberg on Saturday October 11, 1758/2008. I will post pictures on the blog tomorrow along with a full after action report. I wanted to finish the story of Colonel Bauer and Colonel Chalfont at Munzenberg before presenting the big Old School battle.